Technical Field
The present invention relates to protection of the environment by assuring that garbage collection procedures in urban and suburban areas maintain trash containers in a proper sanitary condition.
Background Art
Various municipal garbage collection systems provide garbage or trash containers to residential and commercial sites for their continuous use. Trash containers are typically 3 to 4 feet high with a rectangular cross-section of several feet per side and a hinged lid. The container may be provided with some fixed attachment device or is structurally sufficient so as to permit a garbage or refuse truck, having a chamber into which the refuse is dumped, to grasp the container, lift it above a dump area of the chamber, invert the container to permit the trash or refuse to drop by gravity from the container into the dump area, and then return the container to the spot at which it was grasped. Garbage trucks with these capabilities are well-known in the art and include various methods for grasping and manipulating the trash containers. Trash containers are typically permanently assigned to a residential or commercial location until they are retired and therefore accumulate residue over a period of time.
Currently, for environmental reasons, some municipalities provide several discrete containers to each location, each container dedicated to a particular type of refuse, such as recyclable materials or organic waste. Others provide only a single container that collects all types of refuse other than chemicals or other potentially dangerous materials. In either system, there is at least one container with perishable organic refuse, such as food leftovers, that leave a residue even after the larger contents are dumped. In many instances the refuse is wet, heavy organic biodegradable material that is later decomposed by common bacteria at a garbage collection site. Trash containers that have organic residue are subject to various unhealthy materials such as mold, fungus and harmful bacteria. The organic material may adhere to the sides and bottom of the container even after repeated dumpings. This residue leads to undesirable odors that accumulate over time. More importantly, the fungus, mold or bacteria may be detrimental to persons with certain allergies or weakened immune systems, like children.
Some attempts to overcome the health hazards of organic refuse has been to spray container contents, after it has been dumped into the truck refuse holding chamber with a disinfectant that reduces the smell if not the health hazard. However, that does not address the problem of the accumulating organic residues that adhere to the inside surfaces of the trash containers. It has been found that some container users are sensitive to the problem described and attempt to clean the inside of the containers with water from a garden hose or with a disinfectant spray; however, there is no place to capture the dislodged residue which often is simply dumped out into the street, ineffectively dealing with problem.
The problem is exacerbated by present garbage collection methods that must be cost-effective. It is common for refuse collection systems to employ a fleet of trucks that are deployed to multiple areas of a municipality or county, such as residential neighborhoods, requiring the container users to place the container at a street accessible location where a garbage truck may approach the full container and facilely grasp the container and quickly empty its contents in the manner described above. It is impractical to equip every garbage truck with an apparatus for not only holding the refuse from full containers but also to clean the interior of the container. The cleaning apparatus is bulky as will be described and adding it to the collection vehicle would decrease the holding chamber capacity for the collected material or enlarge the truck to a size that would limit maneuverability. Moreover, the waste material that is ejected must be collected in the cleaning apparatus and the liquid material is desirably filtered and re-used rather than requiring a new batch of solution or water to be supplied after the washing of a number of separate trash containers that would be inefficient and cumbersome. The cost and efficiency criterion for the collection vehicles is also applicable to any system or apparatus for cleaning the trash containers.
A potential solution for the above described problems and challenges would be to provide a separate vehicle, equipped with a cleaning apparatus for trash containers, that would follow collection vehicles on a periodic basis and clean the containers.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,336,239, 5,964,229 and 4,485,513 show various trash container cleaning systems.